This invention relates to the method of providing nutrients to and controlling fungal infections of banana and plantain plants by implanting a slow release implant containing nutrients and fungicides into the banana and plantain plants.
Plantain and banana plants are pseudo stems and really are the leaves of the plant and consist of mostly cells with high content of water matter which take the nutrients from the roots and the rhizome under ground to the leaves for photosynthesis and growth and then translocates these carbohydrates and nutrients to the fruit. When the fruit is mature the nutrients left over are then translocated to the young (sucker) offspring again via the rhizome.
Nutrients for the growth and production of fruits are conventionally obtained from the soil, whether applied as fertilizers manually or from soil inherent fertility.
When fertilizers are applied to the ground up to 80% of these applied nutrients can be locked up in the soil and made insoluble or unavailable. The cost to the producer because of this drastic reduction of available nutrients of these applied fertilizers is high and has been accepted as inevitable cost of producing the fruits.
Recently liquid forms of nutrients have been injected into the pseudo stem of the banana or Plantain plant to supplement the soil-applied nutrients. There is a problem with this method.
Since the banana plantain is grown in high rainfall tropical areas around the world, the pseudo stem has a high aquatic pressure within the extra cell structure, that wherever liquid fertilizers are injected into the pseudo stem, significant portion of this injected material is expelled out of the pseudo stem through the injected opening. There is a need to find a method to introduce nutrients into this high aquatic system on a continuous basis inside the pseudo stem without having it excreted out and therefore having to inject these nutrients into the pseudo stem very frequently at high labor costs.
Conventionally, fungicides to control fungal disease prevalent in bananas and plantains have to be sprayed by airplanes, frequently, from once every month to once every week.
Of this applied pesticides, a significant portion is lost to drift, falling on the ground or washing off by the high rainfall in the tropical countries where bananas are grown. Therefore only a small percentage of the sprayed fungicide actually goes into the banana or plantain plant.
Besides the environmental impact of these aerially applied pesticides, workers in the banana plantation are also exposed to these aerially applied chemicals.
An object of this invention is to provide a novel method of providing nutrients and for controlling pathogens infecting banana and plantain plants by implanting a slow release implant containing nutrients and/or pesticides and fungicides into banana and plantain plants. Nutrients and/or pathogen controlling substances are slowly released into the banana or plantain plants over a period of time thereby obviating the need to fertilize and/or apply a pathogen controlling substance to the banana and plantain plants being treated.